Once students enter the program, they are matched with a mentor at Moorings Park, a local retirement community. They do everything from prepare meals for residents or do laundry and change bedding, to working with the physical therapists, leading activities and helping in the business office.

The idea is to give the students the opportunity to develop career abilities while cultivating interpersonal skills essential to the workplace. The program, which matches the students with staff members at Moorings Park for education and support, also helps build their self-confidence.

"I was put with the (certified nursing assistants) at first, but I didn't care for it. Then I went to activities, but it also wasn't for me," she said. "I was put here (physical therapy) and I love it. I love the patients. I think I am a people person. I get attached to them very quickly."

When her time in Project Explore was done, Moorings Park hired her as a rehabilitation technician. She has worked at Moorings for almost four years.

Now, Stready isn't only living her dream, she is helping other Project Explore students, too.

Once students enter the program, they are matched with a mentor at Moorings Park, a local retirement community. They do everything from prepare meals for residents or do laundry and change bedding, to working with the physical therapists, leading activities and helping in the business office.

This year, Stready is working as a mentor to 19-year-old Mariah Padilla-Crosby. She is the first Project Explore graduate to work as a mentor.

Project Explore program director Anne Fredette said she never imagined that a former student would be a mentor for a current Project Explore student, but said she is thrilled at the turn of events.

"Our goal was never to have students hired here. It is to train them to give them experience to have a career. To give them confidence and the ability to believe in themselves," she said. "But we thought we would try it and they really hit it off. It has been easy."

"It's fun. It's exciting. Sometimes I get nervous, but I try to help her any way I can," said Stready, who admits that she hopes she passes her love of physical therapy onto Padilla-Crosby.

Padilla-Crosby said the mentoring works for her.

"It's great because when I came in I didn't know what to expect," she said. "(Stready) knows what I have been through."

Fredette said it is important for her students to find a niche. She said both Stready and Padilla-Crosby have done just that.

There are 23 Project Explore students graduating in a ceremony at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Moorings Park. The theme of this year's Project Explore graduation is Believe and Achieve.

"When Mariah finds someone who believes in her, she (excels) and Brittany believes in her. Brittany, I am so proud of her. She was employee of the quarter for Moorings Park. That is a big deal. It speaks volumes about her and her drive," she said. "She was one of those students who came in who thought her options were limited. But that isn't true at all."

Fredette said her students work to help one another.

"They have been in each others' shoes," she said. "It really has come full circle."

Padilla-Crosby will be one of 23 Project Explore students graduating in a ceremony at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Moorings Park. The theme of this year's Project Explore graduation is Believe and Achieve, Fredette said.

It has been a lesson students have learned all year, from working with their mentors to raising $800 for the National Alliance for Mental Illness in Project Explore's first-ever charity project.

Padilla-Crosby said she is leaving Project Explore with the intention of helping people. She said she hopes to attend Edison State College in the fall and eventually would like to become an athletic trainer, possibly for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Stready has her own dreams. She said she hopes to retire from Moorings Park.

"Who knows? Some day I might even own this place," she said with a smile.